Friday, December 09, 2005

An artist's Xmas treat: the digital art tablet

A gift for the computer-literate, art-minded person was suggested by digital artist Noma Fowler-Sandlin, whose artist management company is called Musebite.com:

The digtal art tablet.

From d'lynn waldron, at dlynnwaldron.com:

"For the digital artist, there is no more important tool than a Wacom tablet which has a cordless, batteryless, pressure-sensitive stylus that gives controls which far exceed those with conventional media.

The basic controls allow you to set how the brush's width, tone and hue respond to the the pressure you apply to the stylus. You also have the opportunity to select from a wide variety of brush stroke shapes and textures. Other controls can be assigned to the tilt of the pen.

Wacom tablets work interactively with the major graphics programs, such as Photoshop.

Wacom has just made exciting changes and additions throughout its product line.

A big reason for professionals to upgrade their tablets is the ExpressKeys on the left and right sides of the Intuos3 tablets. As an artist working freehand, it is very, very convenient to have a finger button for Undo, meaning I no longer need to reach for the keyboard or move the stylus up to a function strip along the top (which is gone on the Intuos3). The ExpressKeys also contain a "touchpad" control strip for scrolling, which also means you don't have to move your stylus from your work."